Telephone call-back device

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a telephone call-back device that can provide a means for the recipient of a robocall incoming phone call to take action. The telephone call-back device includes an activation device, a call source utility, and a call-back utility. The activation device is a button or switch that a user can activate when they receive a robocall. Once the activation device is activated, the call source utility identifies a source phone number of the robocall incoming phone call. The call-back utility initiates one or more robo call-back outgoing phone calls to be sent to the source phone number. The call-back utility can be programmed to try to send many robo call-back outgoing phone calls to the source phone number to try to swamp the phone number with robo call-back outgoing phone calls.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[S]

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/287,483, filed Feb. 27, 2019, is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/996,364, filed Jun. 1, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No.10,257,349 issued Apr. 9, 2019, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/588,009, filed Nov. 17, 2017,the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated entirely herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field

This invention relates to telephone accessories, and specifically to adevice which answers, responds and sends return phone calls to thesource of robocalls.

State of the Art

Robocalls are phone calls initiated by computers. The recipient mayreceive a computerized message or may be transferred to a human once thecall is answered. Robocalls are very annoying because of their frequencyand the inability of the recipient to get the calls to stop.

Accordingly, what is needed is a device that initiates one or morereturn calls be sent to the source of robocalls.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The disclosed invention relates to telephone accessories, andspecifically to a device which sends return phone calls to the source ofrobocalls.

Disclosed is a method of responding to an unwanted incoming phone call,the method comprising: identifying an incoming phone call as an unwantedincoming phone call received by a phone, regardless of whether theunwanted incoming phone call is answered or not answered; and providing,by an auto-response utility, an automated call answer to the unwantedincoming phone call.

Disclosed is a telephone call-back device that is used to send a seriesof phone calls to a source of robocall incoming phone calls. Thetelephone call-back device includes an activation device coupled to aphone line. The activation device can be a button (for example) that arecipient presses when the recipient determines that a call is arobocall incoming phone call. The telephone call-back device includes acall source utility that determines a source phone number of therobocall incoming phone call. The telephone call-back device alsoincludes a call-back utility. The call-back utility sends at least onerobo call-back outgoing phone call to the source phone number. Thecall-back utility can attempt to swamp the source phone number with robocall-back outgoing phone calls within state regulations.

Disclosed is a method of responding to a robocall incoming phone callthat includes identifying a source phone number of a robocall incomingphone call received by a phone, and initiating one or more robocall-back outgoing phone call to the source phone number.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following moreparticular description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention may be derived byreferring to the detailed description and claims when considered inconnection with the Figures, wherein like reference numbers refer tosimilar items throughout the Figures, and:

FIG. 1 shows a simplified diagram of a telephone call-back devicecoupled to a phone;

FIG. 2 shows a method of responding to a robocall incoming phone call;and

FIG. 3 shows a simplified diagram of a telephone call-back devicecoupled to a phone.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

As discussed above, embodiments of the present invention relate totelephone accessories, and specifically to a device which sends returnphone calls to the source of robocalls.

A robocall incoming phone call is a call received on a phone that ismade by a computer, or initiated by a computer. It can be very annoyingto receive a robocall incoming phone call. Many robocall incoming phonecalls have a computer at the other end, and so there is nobody for therecipient to speak to, no way to tell them to remove your phone number,and no way to stop the robocalls. Disclosed is a telephone call-backdevice that can provide a measure of satisfaction to the recipient ofrobocall incoming phone calls. The telephone call-back device includesan activation device, a call source utility, and a call-back utility.The activation device is a button or switch that the user or owner ofthe telephone call-back device can activate when they receive a robocallincoming phone call. Once the activation device is activated, the callsource utility identifies a source phone number of the robocall incomingphone call. The source phone number is the phone number of the sourceentity that sent the robocall incoming phone call. The call-back utilityinitiates one or more robo call-back outgoing phone calls to be sent tothe source phone number. The call-back utility can be programmed to tryto send many robo call-back outgoing phone calls to the source phonenumber to try to swamp the phone number with robo call-back outgoingphone calls. The robo call-back outgoing phone calls may or may notaffect the source entity or the source phone number, but may rather be aself-help system that may bring some feeling of satisfaction to therecipient of the robocall incoming phone call. While it is discussedthat this is useful for robocalls, it will be appreciated that thissystem can be used for any annoying or unwanted phone calls fromcomputers or human spammers, so long as such use is within the laws ofthe land. The use of the system provides consumer satisfaction bycalling back in order to deal with nuisance of the robocalls or spamcalls in that there is an activity for them to respond.

FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of a telephone call-back device110 coupled to a phone 114. Telephone call-back device 110 includes anactivation device 116, a call source utility 118, and a call-backutility 122.

Telephone call-back device 110 and phone 114 are both coupled to a phoneline 112. Phone line 112 is a communication link that conducts phonecalls to phone 114. In this embodiment, phone 114 is a landline phone,and phone line 112 is a wired communication link (a landline), but thisis not meant to be limiting. In some embodiments, phone 114 is asmartphone as depicted in FIG. 3 and phone line 112 is a wirelesscommunication link. Telephone call-back device 110 is a device thatcontains software, hardware, and firmware, in this embodiment, but thisis not meant to be limiting. Telephone call-back device 110 can be anapp on a smartphone with the activation button 116 being a soft-buttondisplayed on the screen of the smartphone as depicted in FIG. 3, forexample, or any other combination of software, hardware, and firmware.The operation of embodiments on the invention as a smartphone 114 asshown in FIG. 3 operated in the same fashion as described below however,the application that performs the operation converts the smartphone intothe call-back device 110.

Phone line 112 conducts a robocall incoming phone call 120 to phone 114.Robocall incoming phone call 120 is sent from a source entity 126 havinga source phone number. Once a recipient of robocall incoming phone call120 realizes they have received a robocall, they can activate activationdevice 116 of telephone call-back device 110 to initiate a responseusing telephone call-back device 110.

Activation device 116 can be any button or switch or other type ofactivation device that can be used to begin a process. In thisembodiment, activation device 116 is a button that a user willphysically press when a robocall incoming phone call 120 is received.Activation device 116 is separate from phone 114 in the embodiment shownin the figures, but this is not meant to be limiting. In someembodiments, activation device 116 is coupled to or a part of phone 114.In some embodiments, activation device 116 is a soft button on adisplay, or any other type of device that can inform telephone call-backdevice 110 that the recipient has received robocall incoming phone call120. In the embodiment shown in the figures, activation device 116 iscommunicatively coupled to phone 114 using a hardwire communication link134, but this is not meant to be limiting. In some embodiments,communication link 134 is a wireless communication link. In someembodiments, the activation device may have a display that displays callinformation, such as the robocall number, whether the number isassociated with a spam caller and the like.

Activation device 116 is a means for the recipient of robocall incomingphone call 120 to begin a sequence for determining who sent therobocall, and then for sending robo call-backs to the source. In someembodiments, activation device 116 can make a beep or a noise on phoneline 112 that can be used to annoy humans who are involved in sendingrobocall incoming phone call 120. Activation device 116 is a push buttonin the embodiment shown in the figures. When the recipient pushesactivation device 116, telephone call-back device 110 is informed thatthe recipient has received a robocall incoming phone call 120.

Once activation device 116 is activated, call source utility 118determines the source phone number of robocall incoming phone call 120.Call source utility 118 is communicatively coupled to activation device116 using a communication link 136. The source phone number is the phonenumber of source entity 126 that sent robocall incoming phone call 120.In some embodiments, call source utility 118 determines one or morerelated phone number. A related phone number is other phone numbers usedby source entity 126, or phone numbers for related source entities 128.Related source entities 128 are one or more other entities that arerelated to, owned, governed, or controlled by, source entity 126, forexample. Related phone numbers are searched for because often a sourceentity 126 has multiple numbers associated with it, and may have set upmultiple companies or entities in an attempt to hide the source ofrobocalls. Call source utility 118 can be software, firmware, hardware,or any combination of these.

Call-back entity 122 is communicatively coupled to call source entity118 using a communication link 138, which can be a wired or a wirelesscommunication link. Once call source utility 118 determines the sourcephone number, call-back utility 122 sends one or more robo call-backoutgoing phone call 124 to the source phone number. Call-back utility122 can be programmed to send a series of robo call-back outgoing phonecalls 124 to the source phone number and source entity 126. If one ormore related phone number and/or related entities 128 have beenidentified, call-back utility 122 can send one or more robo call-backoutgoing phone call 124 to the related numbers also. The robo call-backoutgoing phone calls 124 may or may not cause a distraction or adisruption to source entity 126 or related entities 128, but they canmake the recipient of robocall incoming phone call 120 feel like theyhave done something to push back against robocall incoming phone call120 and source entity 126. Call-back utility 122 can be software,firmware, hardware, or any combination of these.

In some embodiments, telephone call-back device 110 includes anauto-response utility 132. Auto-response utility 132 will identify knownsource phone numbers to the recipient as robocall incoming phone call120 is being received. In this embodiment, the recipient is thus warnedbeforehand that the incoming call is robocall incoming phone call 120.In this embodiment, once activation device 116 is activated,auto-response utility 132 will answer the call with a robo-answer.Auto-response utility 132 can be software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination of these.

In some embodiments, telephone call-back device 110 is communicativelycoupled to a service center 130. Telephone call-back device 110 can sendthe source phone number and/or robocall incoming phone call 120 toservice center 130. Service center 130 can log robocalls and, in someembodiments, can initiate processes and procedures to investigate andenforce laws, block calls, or otherwise perform a more comprehensiveresponse to robocall incoming phone call 120.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 of responding to a robocall incomingphone call. Method 200 includes an act 210 of identifying a source phonenumber of a robocall incoming phone call received by a phone. The phonecan be a landline or a wireless phone.

Method 200 also includes an act 220 of initiating one or more robocall-back outgoing phone call to the source phone number within stateregulations. The robo call-back outgoing phone calls may be sent toannoy the source of the robocall incoming phone call and clog the sourcephone number.

In some embodiments, method 200 includes determining at least onerelated phone number, where the at least one related phone number isrelated to the source phone number. In some embodiments, method 200includes sending one or more robo call-back outgoing phone call to theat least one related phone number.

In some embodiments, method 200 includes sending the source phone numberto a service center. In some embodiments, method 200 includesinvestigating, by the service center, the source phone number; andtaking comprehensive action as a result of the robocall incoming phonecall. In some embodiments, method 200 includes providing aninvestigation report related to the robocall incoming phone call. Thereport can be provided to the recipient of the robocall incoming phonecall, to the police, or another group that can take action.

In some embodiments, method 200 includes providing, by an auto-responseutility, an automated call answer to the robocall incoming phone call.

Embodiments may be available on or through the internet, such as throughdomain names reserved and owned by Applicant that includeflipthespam.com, or the like.

It will be understood that the call-back device 110 may operate as acomputing device being programmed to perform the functions described inthis disclosure. As such it will be appreciated by one skilled in theart, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system,method, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the presentinvention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software,micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardwareaspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,”“module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention maytake the form of a computer program product embodied in one or morecomputer readable medium(s) having computer readable program codeembodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wire-line, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, cloud-based infrastructurearchitecture, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps tobe performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or otherdevices to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/actsspecified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The embodiments and examples set forth herein were presented in order tobest explain the present invention and its practical application and tothereby enable those of ordinary skill in the art to make and use theinvention. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat the foregoing description and examples have been presented for thepurposes of illustration and example only. The description as set forthis not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to theprecise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possiblein light of the teachings above.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A telephone call-back device comprising: anactivation device coupled to a phone line and phone; a call sourceutility coupled to the activation device, wherein the call sourceutility identifies a source phone number as a spam incoming phone callreceived by the phone, regardless of whether the spam incoming phonecall is answered or not answered, in response to the activation devicebeing activated, and wherein the call source utility is activated by theactivation device during the spam incoming phone call; and anauto-response utility coupled to the activation device, wherein theauto-response utility answers the spam incoming phone call with arobo-answer in response to the activation of the activation device. 2.The device of claim 1, wherein the phone line is a landline.
 3. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the phone line is a wireless communicationlink.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein the call source utilitydetermines related phone numbers of the spam incoming phone call.
 5. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the telephone call-back device iscommunicatively coupled to a service center.
 6. The device of claim 5,wherein telephone call-back device sends the source phone number and thespam incoming phone call to the service center.
 7. The device of claim6, wherein the service center logs the spam incoming phone call.
 8. Thedevice of claim 7, wherein the service center initiates processes andprocedures to investigate and enforce laws, block calls, or otherwiseperform a more comprehensive response to the incoming phone call.
 9. Amethod of responding to a spam incoming phone call, the methodcomprising: activating a call source utility of a telephone call-backdevice by an activation device of the telephone call-back device duringthe spam incoming phone call; identifying, using a call source utility,a source phone number as the spam incoming phone call received by aphone, regardless of whether the spam incoming phone call is answered ornot answered; and providing, by an auto-response utility of thetelephone call-back device, an automated call answer to the spamincoming phone call.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprisingdetermining at least one related phone number, where the at least onerelated phone number is related to the source phone number.
 11. Themethod of claim 9, further comprising sending the source phone number toa service center, and investigating, by the service center, the sourcephone number.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising takingcomprehensive action as a result of the spam incoming phone call.
 13. Amethod of responding to an unwanted incoming phone call, the methodcomprising: activating a call source utility of a telephone call-backdevice by an activation device of the telephone call-back device duringan incoming phone call; identifying, using a call source utility, theincoming phone call as an unwanted incoming phone call received by aphone, regardless of whether the unwanted incoming phone call isanswered or not answered; and providing, by an auto-response utility ofthe telephone call-back device, an automated call answer to the unwantedincoming phone call.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprisingidentifying a source phone number of the unwanted incoming phone call.15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining at least onerelated phone number, where the at least one related phone number isrelated to the source phone number.
 16. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising sending the source phone number to a service center, andinvestigating, by the service center, the source phone number.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, further comprising taking comprehensive action as aresult of the unwanted incoming phone call.